becki_kanou wrote:Darn it, chikara! I was going to make the same joke and you beat me to it!

A friend of mine whose wedding I attended received a blessing from the Pope but I didn't get a close look at it. She is now divorced.

My wife's family threatened her grandfather that they would get him a letter from the Queen when he turned 100. Being a staunch republican of Irish stock it got him wound up. He didn't get a letter from the Queen and he almost made 103.

Chikara-san, thank you for your explanation. It is very helpful and interesting.So even a divorced ex-husband, who had tried to kill his wife once, could use "Yours" in a letter to his ex-wife, as "I am your hateful ex-husband."

"Yours" seems to be very useful!

He didn't get a letter from the Queen and he almost made 103.

Your wife and your children will live as long as he. ( hope you will, too)

looking at the image on this page it seems that the Queen just signs her name.

お答えありがとうございます。「あなたの僕（しもべ）」的な解釈が一番分かりやすいので、高位の方々が使用するかどうか気になりました。You が宗教的なものを指す可能性もあると思いましたが、「I am your X 」 だと汎用性が高そうですね。 Thank you for your reply."Your humble servant" is an understandable interpretation for Japanese people. Therefore I was wondernig whether or not higher positioned people use it.I thought "You" ( in yours) could have addressed something related with religious being.

ところで、「敬具」はどういう意味ですか。:)

敬具は「謹んで申し上げる」の意とされますが、「具」は伴うの意味のようです。「敬いを伴って申し上げました」でしょうか。I think 敬具 is used as "I wrote it with my respect".私も皇族や総理大臣から手紙をもらったことはありません が、敬具は使われないように思います。

My friend's grandmother lived until 100.The municipality issued a celebration letter (issued at 敬老の日, Sep 15th) with a prime minister's name．Few weeks after 敬老の日, an officer brought it and a small memorial gift to their house.

Friend's mother politely and carefully refused to receive them because Grandma had passed away. She told that the funeral had been completed just two days before the officer came. But the officer said "At least, grandma lived at 敬老の日", he insisted that he had to give the letter and the gift to the family.

I have no idea what O.G. could stand for. I've spent the last twenty minutes searching. Thinking it could be Latin, I searched common Latin abbreviations. The closest was 'omnes gentes' (all the peoples), but I'm sure that isn't it.

clay wrote:I have no idea what O.G. could stand for. I've spent the last twenty minutes searching. Thinking it could be Latin, I searched common Latin abbreviations. The closest was 'omnes gentes' (all the peoples), but I'm sure that isn't it.

Yeah, if you look at an earlier version of the article it uses "A.B.". They're definitely placeholder initials, although changing them to "O.G." was probably vandalism of some sort that nobody ever cared to notice. Article should probably use John Doe for clarity, in any case.